F.A.A. Inspectors Are Divided Over Safety Violations by Valujet

By MATTHEW L. WALD

Published: March 1, 1998

Valujet has broken numerous safety rules but there is ''no evidence of systematic safety problems,'' the Federal Aviation Administration said on Friday. But the agency also said its inspectors had had an unusual disagreement among themselves about the airline, which is now doing business as Airtran Airlines.

The agency said that in a special inspection late last year it found 46 violations and was seeking fines in 19 cases. It said the airline had not kept proper records of rest and duty time of air crews, failed to keep track of changes in weight and balance of aircraft when reconfiguring them, and gave repair work to outside companies not authorized to do such work, among other problems.

But the aviation agency also said that on closer evaluation, 60 findings could not be substantiated and had been dropped. The findings included charges of falsification of records.

The airline's president and chief executive, Joseph Corr, said in a statement: ''This was an exhaustive white-glove inspection and we're delighted with the outcome. This confirms what we've been saying all along, and that's that we operate a fine airline which is in compliance with F.A.A. regulations.''

Margaret Gilligan, the agency's Associate Administrator for regulation and certification, said she could not say whether the ratio of inspection findings that were later dropped -- 60 of 106 -- was usual for an agency inspection. Ms. Gilligan also said she could not say whether the remaining 46 was a large number for a small carrier like Valujet.

Further complicating the issue, the audit was of Valujet, now doing business as Airtran Airlines, and not of Airtran Airways, which was bought by Valujet but which has a separate operation. The agency treats them separately because each has a different certificate from it.

Valujet changed its name after the crash of one of its DC-9's in the Everglades in May 1996. Investigators said it had been caused by oxygen generators aboard the flight. In the wake of the crash, the aviation agency gathered a team of inspectors from around the country and sent them to conduct a detailed examination between Oct. 20 and Nov. 7 last year. They found 106 safety and other violations, and turned those over to the Atlanta inspectors who regularly check on the airline.

Ms. Gilligan said ''there was substantial disagreement'' between the two groups of inspectors. Two more inspectors were brought in to arbitrate on which findings were valid.

The inspection relied heavily on review of paperwork, and many of the problems found were paperwork violations, like airline personnel using the wrong forms, or company manuals referring improperly to other documents, because those documents had since been revised.

There were a variety of reasons that the 60 violations were overturned. In one case, the first inspectors found that Valujet had contracted with Leading Edge Aircraft Painting, of Greenville, Miss., to repaint planes, but the company was not listed by the airline in its agency-approved operations specifications. The second set of inspectors found that this was not necessary, because exterior painting is not a major alteration but that Leading Edge had also installed business-class seats in the planes, which is a major alteration, and should have been listed.

The 1996 crash was also linked in part to improper oversight of contractors.